Project Tips:
Let's play with bleach and learn what you can do with Cricut Infusible Inks. Quick tut below and I've included a free SVG Download to make your own tee!
Supplies: (This post may contain affiliate links)
Cricut or any vinyl cutter
Cricut Infusible Ink - Black
Cricut Infusibile Ink - Leopard
Cricut Easy Press 2 (or any heat press that reaches 385F)
Free SVG Below
Clorox brand bleach
Paint brush (for bleach)
Tee shirt, 60% Polyester or more; Ideas below!
Hanes Cool Dry (read label)
Gildan Soft Style Heathers (read label)
Quick tips and steps:
**If you need a full tutorial on how to use your Cricut or vinyl, I highly recommend Jennifer Maker on YouTube! I will not go into detail, just giving the quick tips and best practices I have learned.
PRESSING INFUSIBLE INK DESIGN
Select a good shirt for sublimation (infusible ink). I find Hanes Cool Dry at Dollar General and Gildan Soft style from Hobby Lobby. Make sure to read the labels as each color is made of different fibers. Heathers tend to have higher polyester count. I find best to use 60% or more polyester blends! The less polyester, the lighter your ink press will turn out. I prefer a more vintage look over using a 100% polyester shirt. This is up to you!
Prep your shirt for ink. Lay flat and use a lint roller to clean the front. Press your shirt for 30 seconds to get out any wrinkles or moisture. Let cool while you cut your infusible ink.
Cut file is made with two different colors so you can choose a different sheet of ink for the sunglasses. I had fun with leopard print! REMINDER: make sure to mirror your image and place ink sheets INK SIDE UP on the mat for cutting.
No need to layer press your shirt with infusible ink! The ink sheets are stiff, so you can easily pop out the sunglasses and replace the lens with a color of your choice.
Set up your heat press to 385F for 40 seconds, once it is fully heated you can move on to the next step!
Review temp settings and instructions on how to use infusible ink here on Cricut's website. Follow guide on where to put a piece of card stock inside shirt, ink side down then a layer of butcher paper (included in infusible ink box).
PRESS at 385F for 40 seconds
Carefully remove butcher paper and peel up infusible ink. Most of the ink will have transferred from the sheet to your shirt! Picture below (left) you can see how the design turned out on a heather blue Hanes Cool Dry tee.
NOW TO BLEACH!
You can find cardboard Tshirt forms at Hobby Lobby or just cut up a box. I place a garbage bag over the cardboard as extra protection from bleach leaking to the back of your shirt. Unless you would like that look!
Set up your station outside in the sunlight, that helps the bleach cure faster.
Place bleach in a bowl (I use glass) and grab your paintbrush! I used one with stiff bristles to get a textured look.
Dip paintbrush in bowl and tap to release any drips. You might want to hold the bowl under your brush hovering over the design so you don't drip on your tee.
Start painting! Use your imagination to do brush strokes around the design. I went pretty light on the bleach here. You can see after 3 - 5 minutes it looked like the middle image, then after 10 minutes the bleach continued to turn into a nice baby blue.
If you are happy with the color change, stop! If you would like it to be more white, go ahead and do another coat.
To add some more design, dip brush again and make flicks of bleach dribbling over the shirt.
Let sit again in the sunlight for another 1o minutes.
Once you are happy with the coloring outcome, toss your shirt in the washer and wash on COLD.
Dry and enjoy your new tee!
Post a pic of your completed project!
Keep scrolling for a free svg download for this project!
TERMS OF USE:
You MAY use these digital files to create products for personal use only.
You MAY NOT use these digital files to create products for sale.
You MAY NOT use these digital files to resell or share as a whole or part of another digital product offering OR upload to a POD (print on demand) website (like Zazzle, Cafe Press, Redbubble, ect...)
These digital offerings are hand drawn digitally or by hand with love by me. I retain copyright to all artwork.
If you need more file types of this design or would like to create handmade products to sell, you can purchase the commercial use file package from my Etsy shop! Let's make sure to support each other as creators. ❤️
Thank you for viewing and as always, reach out with any questions!
**This post may contain affiliate links